Was the Facebook Outage Technical or Political in Nature?

This past Wednesday Facebook went down worldwide for approximately 20 minutes. While that may not seem like a lot of time, those who read this blog have come to know that every minute of downtime can equate to thousands of dollars in lost revenue. The question is, what caused the Facebook outage? Was it something that could have been avoided or something that even the best technology and vigilance couldn't have stopped?

Anonymous Takes Credit

The hacktivist group called Anonymous took credit for the Facebook outage. But why would Anonymous have any interest in Facebook whatsoever? After all, it's a site where friends and family post updates to one another and share pictures and messages. What interest could Anonymous have in such a site? This just goes to show you that even if you think your site might never draw the interest of such an attack, something may indeed one day trigger one.

Why Would Anonymous Take Down Facebook?

It appears that Anonymous isn't happy with Facebook's "transparency" issues as of late. Facebook has admitted to sharing user information with the government. Anonymous did tweet, "DAY OF ACTION AGAINST #NSA #SURVEILLANCE BEGINS NOW." As we know, when Anonymous thinks that citizens' rights are being violated, they are more than happy to take action. Sharing of information with the government without citizen consent is definitely a violation of rights in the eyes of many. And while Facebook may have denied that Anonymous caused the outage, they aren't giving any explanation as to what did.

And the Tables Get Turned

If the Facebook outage was indeed due to the hands of Anonymous (which FB is denying), then Facebook turned the tables by taking down the hacktivist group's Facebook page. One would question, if Anonymous wasn't behind the attack, why would Facebook retaliate by taking down the group's Facebook page? Regardless, this is a reminder that no matter how innocent your site may seem, it may be the target of an attack one day. Perhaps not by Anonymous, but no website is completely invulnerable to website attacks and Anonymous isn't the only group out there performing such attacks. Other groups and individuals are responsible for many DDoS attacks, and for much less noble reasons.

Is Your Site Protected?

If your site is monetized, as most sites are, then you know that every minute of downtime that your site experiences is going to cost you money. Is your site protected? If it's not, this is a perfect reminder that you need to put measures against DDoS attacks in place sooner rather than later. It's also a reminder that website monitoring service is crucial. After all, if your site is under attack you're likely going to experience slowdowns before the site goes completely down. Alertra customers can rest assured knowing they will be alerted of any site performance issues or website outages the moment they occur.